


Puppy Love

by softjohn



Category: Pacific Rim (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Everything is Beautiful and Nothing Hurts, Fluff, M/M, One Shot, Raleigh + Cute Puppies, Raleigh's sweater addiction, an entire forest's worth of sap, australianism, chuck being in denial, cursing, of the shameless variety
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-05
Updated: 2017-10-05
Packaged: 2019-01-09 09:26:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12273588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/softjohn/pseuds/softjohn
Summary: Raleigh laughed softly.‘What?’‘Just…Your mood improves a lot when you have a puppy in your arms, doesn’t it?’At this, Chuck merely shrugged, probably proving the truth of that statement.‘What can I say, I have a soft spot for the tiny bastards.’





	Puppy Love

**Author's Note:**

  * For [GutterBall](https://archiveofourown.org/users/GutterBall/gifts).



> Dedicated to Gutterball, who sent in the absolutely perfect prompt! :)
> 
> Also inspired by [this gifset.](http://softjohn.tumblr.com/post/166071797672/nerd4music-people-charlie-hunnam-playing-with) Open at the risk of exposure to extreme cuteness.

‘Hello, do you wanna join-’

‘Fuck off.’

Chuck pointedly didn’t bother looking up from his textbook. He was ploughing his way through a section on plasma astrophysics with a degree of fanatical obstinacy which would’ve stunned any clinical psychiatrist. He had been doing so for the past four hours, lurking in an obscure corner of Jaeger Institute of Technology’s extensive library, where nobody could possibly ever find him.

More bloody fool him, apparently.

‘You didn’t let me-’

‘Fuck off.’

Shoving the heavy textbook away to reveal the slightly flattened notebook beneath, Chuck scrawled a couple of sentences about the importance of magnetic fields and relativistic particles in organising structures and powering outflows on galactic scales.

‘I just wanted to ask-’

The pencil nib snapped against the page with a tiny explosion of graphite.

‘Fuck. Off.’

Chuck swiped at the debris with his thumb and aggressively persevered with his notes, broken nib be damned. This attitude of grim resolve was, unfortunately for him, evidently shared by Raleigh Fucking Becket, despite the fact that the last time they’d had a conversation Chuck had both tried and spectacularly failed to punch him in the face.

‘Could you at least-’

‘Fuck-’

‘- _look_  at-’

‘-the _bloody hell_ -’

‘-the puppies?’

‘-off!’

A pause.

‘The fuckin’  _wha_ -’

This time, the interruption was not caused by a bloody seppo wanker speaking at increasingly loud volumes, but rather by Chuck himself. At the sight of Becket standing there, stupid face as punchable as ever, with a Bernese Mountain Dog cradled in the crook of one arm and a Golden Retriever in the other, Chuck’s train of thought derailed and abruptly ran smack bang into a fucking cliff. 

‘I was  _asking_ ,’ Becket said patiently into the rare silence, ‘whether you wanted to join the Pundits of Puppies and Dogs Club. My assistants Bonesquid and Fiend are here to help me out.’

He lifted the golden puppy a little and smiled down at it. It sniffed drowsily at his nose, which he then crinkled like the absolute bloody dork he was.

In that moment, Chuck would have fucking  _paid_ him to stop it with the face and the puppies and the stupid hipster sweater and the fucking goddamn  _face_ , because he was having to work pretty bloody hard to convince himself that  _punching_  was what he actually wanted to do to Becket’s dumb mug.

‘Mate, you actually bloody called them  _Bonesquid_  and  _Fiend_?’ Chuck asked scathingly. Then his eyes dropped to the Bernese, which glanced at him with dark, wary eyes before peering down at the floor.

Chuck’s mouth opened slightly, but he was too busy melting on the inside to muster any fucks to give.

‘Blame Newt,’ Becket said with a small grin. ‘I don’t know what the names mean or why he picks ‘em, but he definitely gets enthusiastic about it.’ Pausing, he gave Chuck an intent look which went entirely unnoticed. He then stepped closer and carefully extended the arm occupied by the Bernese. ‘This is Bonesquid. Want to hold her?’

Chuck wordlessly reached out and took her, fingers brushing Becket’s as he slipped a gentle hand between the puppy’s front legs and wrapped her in his arms. She was unbearably small and soft; reminded of when his own bulldog Max had been but a tiny parsnip, Chuck felt a grin slowly and inexorably overtake his face. 

‘Gorgeous sheila, aren’t you?’ he asked the dog. ‘Bloody tragic that you’re stuck with a name like Bonesquid.’ She snuffled quietly in response, and Chuck was one hundred per cent certain that it was in assent. Only a fuckwit like Newt Geiszler would think it was a good idea to name a puppy fucking  _Bonesquid_.

Chuck looked up just quickly enough to see Becket jump and swiftly return his attention to Fiend. There was a bit of a flush hovering about those massive elf ears, or Chuck was a mongoose. 

‘So, what was your bloody mouthful of a club called, again?’ 

Becket’s eyes reluctantly crept back up. ‘Uh, the Pundits of Puppies and Dogs Club,’ he said, absently shaking Fiend’s paw with his free hand. ‘We usually call it the PPDC, though, because the name’s…long…’

He trailed off. The blush decided to start migrating down his cheekbones.

This was definitely very strange behaviour, Chuck thought.

Becket wasn’t the mumbly, blushy type of bloke. In fact, he was usually brazenly confident, striding down JIT’s halls with his brother like the world could crumble around his very fucking ears and simply bounce off the impenetrable force-field that was his ego. He’d certainly seemed to have no issue tearing into Chuck a few weeks ago, when he’d misinterpreted his inside joke with Mako Mori as Chuck being a fuckhead - which would admittedly, for the vast majority of the time, not be far off the mark.

Eyes now firmly centred on the puppy, Becket made a brave attempt to cover up his dithering. ‘Mako told me you have a dog, so I thought you might be interested.’ A gleam of teeth showed as he bit at his lip. Chuck found the urge to - to  _punch_  him him increasing exponentially, and forced his face into something approaching neutrality as Raleigh met his eyes. ‘She also told me about your shared sense of humour. Loudly, and at length.’ The stupid Yank’s mouth curved into a rueful smile. ‘So I guess this is also my attempt at an apology.’

Chuck scratched beneath Bonesquid’s jaw as he tried to decide what to do with this. Eventually, he settled on: ‘No worries, mate. I’d probably do the same if I saw some wanker arkin’ up at Mori.’ It was true enough, and there was only so long he could bloody well hold out against  _three_ pairs of puppy eyes.

Raleigh laughed softly. 

‘What?’

‘Just…Your mood improves a  _lot_  when you have a puppy in your arms, doesn’t it?’

At this, Chuck merely shrugged, probably proving the truth of that statement. ‘What can I say, I have a soft spot for the tiny bastards.’ 

Bonesquid opened her jaws and yawned with a high-pitched whine, tiny pink tongue curling. 

Chuck decided to put his fucking foot down.

‘No bloody way am I calling her Bonesquid,’ he said. ‘Boo or nothing.’

‘Boo?’ Raleigh snickered.

Chuck glared.

Raleigh raised his eyebrows and looked back down to stroke Fiend’s head, emanating a distinct air of passive-aggressive and long-suffering resignation. To his own surprise, Chuck found himself huffing a laugh. The seppo’s stupid face broke into a smile and he looked up at Chuck.

They stared at each other.

Chuck kept expecting Raleigh to glance away.

He didn’t.

It was only after a good minute or so had passed that Chuck stopped wondering why Raleigh wasn’t breaking the stare and started wondering why  _he_ wasn’t, either. This revelation had him clearing his throat loudly and returning his attention to Boo, who had apparently fallen asleep, the adorable shit.

In his peripheral vision, he saw Raleigh flush again.

The adorable shit.

 _Fuck_.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> :^)


End file.
